Genie Energy Ltd.

Good morning and welcome to Genie Energy's second quarter 2023 earnings call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by a zero. After today's presentation by Genie Energy's management, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Brian Siegel of Hayden IR.

Thank you, Operator. With me today are Michael Stein, Genie Energy's CEO, and Avi Golden, Genie Energy's TFO, who will discuss operational and financial results. Any forward-looking statements made during this conference call, whether general or specific in nature, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the reports that we file periodically with the SEC. Jeannie assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements that we have made or may make or to update the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those that we forecast. During their remarks, management makes reference to adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure. Management believes that its measure of adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to both management and investors that supplement our core operating results. Our earnings release, which is posted on the Jeannie.com IR page, includes a reconciliation of consolidated adjusted EBITDA to its nearest comparable gap measures, consolidated debt income and income from operations, for all periods presented. In addition, adjusted EBITDA for applicable segments are reconciled in the earnings release to their respective segments' income from operations for all periods presented. I will now turn the conference over to Michael Stein, Genie's Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Brian, and welcome to our investors and other stakeholders listening today. During the second quarter, we built on our positive first quarter momentum, continuing to add significant numbers of new retail energy customers, expanding and advancing projects within our solar project pipeline, and delivering very strong financial results, including record levels of second quarter revenue and income from operations. At GRE, commodity prices again remained relatively stable during the quarter. In this favorable environment, we pushed to acquire new customers. By quarter's end, we had added 75,000 gross new meter ads in the quarter, more than double the year-ago pace. RCEs increased by 45% to 380,000 and meters by 36% to 381,000. We are now serving more RCEs than ever before in the company's history. Financially, the increase in meter acquisitions is reflected in both our increased sales and marketing spend and in our growing revenue base. Meanwhile, our churn rate dropped to 4.3% from 4.4% in the prior and year-ago quarters. We are particularly pleased with this since churn usually accelerates during higher customer acquisition periods. The current decrease reflects great work from our customer retention team, which is making a more significant impact with each passing quarter. A big shout out to them for a job well done. We will continue to focus on minimizing our churn even as we further build our customer base in upcoming quarters. At Genie Renewables, or GRU, we continue to build out our pipeline of company-owned projects in the second quarter. We gained site control on another five projects, totaling roughly 30 megawatts, bringing the total number of pipeline projects to 15, with an aggregate 108 megawatts of potential power generation. In April, we broke ground on our first community solar project, a project in Perry, New York. And in July, after the quarter closed, we achieved notice to proceed on a second community solar project, This one, a 6.25 megawatt community solar farm in Lansing, New York. Looking ahead, we are making great progress within our development pipeline and expect to gain site control on more potential projects in the second half of the year. The economics of these projects are attractive, and we anticipate retaining ownership in most, if not all of them, to leverage our strong balance sheet and relatively low cost of capital and maximize shareholder value creation. As a result of our strong performance year to date and positive outlook, we are increasing our consolidated 2023 adjusted EBITDA guidance to the $47 to $55 million range from the $40 to $50 million range we forecast at the start of the year. Our upwardly revised guidance also represents a powerful increase from our pre-2022 normalized EBITDA, which was in the $25 to $30 million range. The improvement in our performance reflects our significantly larger customer base, our transition to operating exclusively in domestic retail markets, our proven ability to operate our R&Ps profitably across a wide range of market conditions in those domestic markets, and our focus on operational excellence. We strive to continually enhance our analytics and operational capabilities, and our success is reflected in our bottom line results. Our guidance also includes continued investment in new retail customer acquisitions in the second half of the year. With wholesale energy costs this year remaining at lower levels than last year, we are pursuing targeted opportunities created by higher legacy cost-based rates of certain incoming utilities. This organic growth strategy should enable us to cost-effectively expand our meter base in the second half of the year, albeit at a lower rate of meter adds than in the first half. Looking to the second half of the year for GRU, we are on target to complete construction of our Perry, New York farm and begin construction of the Lansing project. while incrementally continuing to advance and expand our project pipeline. To wrap up, we continue to deliver strong operational and financial results in the second quarter, while significantly increasing our retail customer base and taking significant steps forward in our emerging renewables businesses. We also continue to fulfill our ongoing commitment to return capital to our stockholders by redeeming the remaining preferred stock and paying our quarterly common stock dividends. In all, this was another very strong quarter, and I want to acknowledge the efforts of my Gini colleagues that make it possible. Thank you, team, and keep up the good work. Now I'll turn the call over to Avi for his discussion of our Q2 financial results.

Thank you, Michael, and thanks to everyone on the call for joining us this morning. My remarks today focus on our financial results for the three months ended June 30th, 2023. Throughout my remarks, I'll primarily compare second quarter 2023 to the second quarter of 2022. to remove from consideration the seasonal factors that are characteristic of our retail energy business. The second quarter is typically impacted by seasonally low levels of per-meter electricity and gas consumption, as it falls between the year's peak heating months in the first quarter and peak cooling months in the third quarter. Gini's second quarter financial results, again, reflected our retail business's very strong underlying fundamentals and continued investment to build out our renewables platform. At GRE, we achieved record second quarter revenue, gross profit, income from operations, and adjusted EBITDA, powered by the rapid growth of our customer base in the first half of this year. Margins for the quarter were strong by historical standards, although slightly below last year's exceptional second quarter. At GD Renewables, we continue to make progress in our solar generation development pipeline, while our other renewables businesses performed well. From a balance sheet perspective, our strong operating results for this quarter enabled us to further fortify our financial position, even as we continued to return value to shareholders through quarterly common stock dividends and the redemption of the outstanding shares of our preferred stock. Now let's look at the quarter's results in more detail. Second quarter consolidated revenue increased 40% to $93 million, driven by our retail business. At GRE, second quarter revenue increased by 42% to $90 million on strong electricity sales, which increased by 51% to $80 million. Kilowatt hours sold increased by 47% on a comparable percentage increase in average electric meters served. Our average revenue per kilowatt hour sold edged up 3%. Gas sales decreased 11% to $9 million on an 8% decrease in therms sold. At renewables, revenue was $3.7 million, impacted by strong growth at diversity. Gross profit on a consolidated basis in the second quarter increased 28% to $38 million from $30 million while gross margin decreased 370 basis points to 41%. At GRE, gross profit increased 29% to 37 million. Gross margin decreased 420 basis points to 42%, well above historical levels. Compared to the year-ago quarter, kilowatt-hour sold increased by 47%, but gross profit per kilowatt-hour sold was 17% lowered, as the year-ago quarter was impacted by an unusually strong margin position. Consolidated SG&A increased 28% to 23 million, GRE SG&A increased 31% to $19 million, reflecting a significant increase in gross meter acquisitions compared to the year-ago quarter. Corporate SG&A was unchanged compared to the year-ago quarter at $2.1 million. Salaried income from operations increased 28% to $15 million in the second quarter on the strength of GRE's expanded electricity customer base. Salaried adjusted EBITDA increased 30% to $15.8 million. At GRE, income from operations increased 28% to $18.4 million, and adjusted EBITDA increased 27% to $18.8 million. The increase in GRE's gross profit more than offset the increased spending for meter acquisition. Junior renewables lost from operations in negative adjusted EBITDA were $1.3 million and $1.2 million, respectively, compared to a loss from operations of $518,000 and negative adjusted EBITDA $508,000 a year earlier. As was the case last quarter, the results reflect increased SG&A spending as we ramp up our investment in solar projects. These projects are expected to begin generating revenue early next year as our first community solar projects come online. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations, which exclude any impact from our international operations, increased to $0.45 in the second quarter of 2023 compared to $0.26 a year earlier. Gini's diluted EPS was $0.57 on net income attributed with Gini Common stockholders of $15 million. compared to EPS of $1.30 on net income attributed to Virginia common stockholders of $33.9 million a year ago quarter. The decline was caused entirely by lower net income from discontinued operations, as the year ago quarter included a significant one-time gain at our European retail business. Turning now to the balance sheet. At June 30th, cash, restricted cash, and marketable equity securities totaled $115.1 million. Working capital was $156 million, and non-current liabilities totaled just $2.8 million. To wrap up, The company continues to deliver strong performance, achieving record revenue and income from operations in the quarter, driven by the strong operational performance that Michael covered in his remarks. We continue to return value to shareholders, not only paying the dividend in our common stock, but completing the redemption of our preferred stock. Our strong first half results, the robust growth of our customer book, and our competitive position in the retail energy market position us to raise our guidance for the year. Now, operator, back to you for Q&A.

Certainly. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before typing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Your first question is coming from Yehida Fruiter, a private investor.

Yeah, hi guys, congrats, really amazing quarter, very impressive. My first question is, it's great that you're raising estimates and I'm just wondering right now, how conservative those estimates are considering the growth of meters and the ongoing heat wave across the country where ACs are running nonstop. So I assume the electrical bills will be up significantly in quarter three. And I'm just wondering how you can comment on that situation and kind of what you're seeing.

Hi. Thanks. You know, thanks for the warm wishes. You know, we're going to stick by that guidance. You know, we feel very, very confident that we're going to hit it. Yes, throughput is strong during the summer. No question about it.

And then how does it work in terms of the wholesale costs when the electricity usage is going up so significantly, especially in Texas? Are you guys affected by that at all?

Yeah, Texas, we've definitely seen a few days of price spikes throughout the summer, but it hasn't been for a sustained period. It's more a few hours a day here and there. So it's nothing like what we saw last You know, during winter storm Uri, we don't have those concerns. As far as the rest of the country, costs have stayed pretty tame relative to the hot weather that was expected or that we've been experiencing, rather. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that we had a large natural gas storage excess across the country. So we're in good shape.

Great. And just one more quick question. Do you have any update on the cash that's held by the UK administrators? I'm not really clear on where that would show up in the balance sheet or whether you got that money back yet.

I'll let Avi talk to where it would show up on the balance sheet. We haven't gotten money back yet, but that is definitely making its way forward. through the courts and the administration process. We do expect resolution this year.

Hi, Yehuda. This is Avi. So that would show up in current assets of discontinued operations on the balance sheet.

Okay. All right. I see it.

Thanks a lot. And that's part of that number. You know, other elements in there as well. Okay.

Thanks. Great quarter again. Thanks a lot, guys. Thank you.

Once again, if you have a question, please press star 1. This concludes our question and answer session and conference call. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.